Week 1
Fredrick Downs left California on September 8, 1967 in a DC-8 for a base in Vietnam. When they land, Downs is surprised at how peaceful the base is and how there is no fighting with the enemy. The next morning, he boards another plane and flies north to another base. From here, he is taken in a helicopter or heuy, to his squad in the jungle. He takes his squad to a mountain and takes it. After he has taken the mountain overlooking a rice village, he departs to bridge where he will patrol for the next week.
Week 2
While Downs and another soldier were taking a smoke break one night, they heard some noise down the road. They decided to fire one shot at the sound to see what it was. They were shocked when after the shot went off, there was a huge explosion from where the noise was. It turned out that the shot had startled a Vietnamese land mine team and had accidently blew the explosives up, killing all of the Vietnamese there.
Week 3 Downs now leads his squad into the Jungles of Vietnam. He has many close encounters with explosions and ambushes. On one patrol, they encountered what looked like a deserted Vietnamese camp. But upon further inspection, there was still Vietnamese there and they got into a fire fight. Somehow, no Americans were hurt.
Week 1
Fredrick Downs left California on September 8, 1967 in a DC-8 for a base in Vietnam. When they land, Downs is surprised at how peaceful the base is and how there is no fighting with the enemy. The next morning, he boards another plane and flies north to another base. From here, he is taken in a helicopter or heuy, to his squad in the jungle. He takes his squad to a mountain and takes it. After he has taken the mountain overlooking a rice village, he departs to bridge where he will patrol for the next week.
Week 2
While Downs and another soldier were taking a smoke break one night, they heard some noise down the road. They decided to fire one shot at the sound to see what it was. They were shocked when after the shot went off, there was a huge explosion from where the noise was. It turned out that the shot had startled a Vietnamese land mine team and had accidently blew the explosives up, killing all of the Vietnamese there.
Week 3
Downs now leads his squad into the Jungles of Vietnam. He has many close encounters with explosions and ambushes. On one patrol, they encountered what looked like a deserted Vietnamese camp. But upon further inspection, there was still Vietnamese there and they got into a fire fight. Somehow, no Americans were hurt.